Monthly Archives: September 2014

The in basket: Norm Mundhenk wrote
nearly a year ago, saying “In Poulsbo, Torval Canyon Road runs into
Fourth Avenue, forming a sort of T-junction. However, Fourth Avenue
ends in a short cul-de-sac as soon as it crosses Torval Canyon.

“The signs at this junction strike me as
very strange.” he said. “There is no sign at all for cars leaving
the cul-de-sac. One assumes that this happens very rarely, but
whenever a car does leave, it is apparently free to drive right out
without stopping. However, cars approaching from the south or east
have stop signs, even though the corner is basically just a
continuing road for such cars.

“I wonder why it would not be possible
to do something at this junction such has been done where Hillcrest
runs into Central Valley Road (in Central Kitsap). There Hillcrest
(which functions rather like the cul-de-sac on Fourth Avenue,
although surely it has more cars using it) has a stop sign, with
another sign underneath the stop sign informing drivers that
‘Oncoming traffic does not stop’. Cars coming south on Central
Valley are allowed to continue without stopping even though it is a
left turn.

“Surely something like this could be
done instead of the stop signs at Torval Canyon and Fourth Avenue,”
he concluded.

The out basket: The stub of Fourth
Avenue strikes me as more of a tiny parking lot than a cul-de-sac
and I thought it might be missing a stop sign. But it turns out
that that traffic alignment is intentional and arises from a
six-year-old traffic study.

Michael Bateman, senior engineering
technician for the city of Poulsbo, says “The stop signs on Fourth
and on Torval Canyon are based upon recommendations in the City of
Poulsbo’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Study of 2008.

“They are a part of a larger strategy
and were considered essential in concert with additional stops
placed on Front Street. Without the additional all-way stops
in the downtown core at intersections such as Fourth and Torval
Canyon, through-traffic not intending to stop in the downtown core
would seek alternate routes as cut-through bypasses to avoid the
stops on Front, without re-routing to the desirable Highway 305
route.

“This results in both undesirable
volumes and undesirable speeds in the downtown core street
network.

Removal of the stops at 4th and Torval
without simultaneous removal of stops on Front Street would create
additional traffic and additional speeds on this route, a very
undesirable result,” he said.

A consultant looked at the strategy in
2010, when traffic counts were updated, and it was found to be
working well, Michael said, “with no action to add or remove TDM
measures recommended.”

“As we still get feedback from the
neighborhood that the stops are not 100 percent effective at
controlling traffic and speed in the neighborhood, and have
recently installed additional speed tables on Fourth in order to
combat the excessive speeds as demanded by local residents, removal
of these stops is not recommended.”

The intersection was identified in the
study as an all-way stop, he added, and at one time there was a
third stop sign, controlling those exiting the Fourth Avenue
stub. “It was removed in response to a citizen
complaint that it should not be there,” he said.

The in basket: Doug Pinard is concerned about the new traffic
signal being installed on Mullenix Road at Phillips Road in South
Kitsap when the lights go out.

He lives in that area, he said, and “it’s very prone to power
outages.” The intersection is not well lighted and drivers
will have trouble seeing that there is a signal there when the
power is out, he said. He asked if the lights will have backup
generators.

The out basket: Backup generators at traffic lights are rare.
The only one I know of in the county is at the single point
interchange in Silverdale where highways 3 and 303 meet. So I
wasn’t surprised when Kitsap County officials said none are planned
at Mullenix and Phillips.

They will be bordered in a reflective gold color, which is the
accepted provision for power outages. In fact, the signal heads
have been mounted already on the cross bars and they have the
border.

The intersection will be better lighted when the lights are on.
The signal poles have street lights atop them and I spotted at
least one additional street light there. That won’t help when the
power’s out, of course, but the reflective borders will.

The in basket: Petra Hellthaler heard a report on a KUOW radio
show called “Here and Now” this month about the use of the “zipper”
merge tactic, and highlighted a couple of Web sites discussing it.
She knows of my campaign to get it signed and used at the Bremerton
merge of highways 3 and 304. She said she’s all for it too.

One of the Web sites decried the use of what it called “the jerk
merge” on a troublesome San Francisco highway, saying that forcing
one’s way into a line of bumper-to-bumper traffic “may exacerbate
the city’s already horrendous traffic problems.”

The other one, on the Ars Technica Web site, says that the
state of Minnesota “began openly advertising the zipper merge in
the early 2000s” and “now Washington state has followed suit to
encourage zipper merging … in the highly publicized construction
zones in Seattle.”

Its article was headlined “The beauty of the zipper merge, or
why you should drive ruder” and included the following, from
Minnesota traffic engineer Ken Johnson:

“It
works as follows: in the event of an impending lane closure,
drivers should fill in both lanes in equal measure.
Within a few car lengths of a lane ending, both lanes’ cars should
take turns filling in the open lane and resuming full speed.

“If roads are clear enough that everyone
is already driving close to the speed limit,
zipper merging isn’t as effective, but in the case of
congestion, Johnson said that this method reduces backups by a
whopping 40 percent on average, since both lanes approach
the merge with equal stake in maintaining speed.”

One might think that the article about
the San Francisco “jerk merges” would be an argument against the
zipper, but it’s not. It’s the series of merges all along the
backup that makes things worse, and makes tempers flare, not the
orderly alternate merges where the one lane ends.

TV news was abuzz this summer about those Seattle freeway lane
closures, but I hadn’t heard mention of the zipper in all that.

But if it was true, I wondered about the possibility of it
migrating over here to the 3-304 merge. A study is under way of
making that merge work better, with a public meeting coming up this
year.

The out basket: News of the zipper movement catching on in this
state hadn’t reached our Olympic Region. Spokeswoman Claudia
Bingham Baker said, “I’ve not heard
of us going to the type of system you referenced.

“As regards zipper merging in
general,” she added, “studies show that if traffic is moving well,
it’s better to merge before you reach the end of the merging
lane. If traffic is moving slowly, it’s more efficient to
continue down to the end of the merging lane, and ‘zipper’ into
traffic there.”

Claudia then referred me to
Travis Phelps, her counterpart in the state’s Northwest Region, and
he confirmed what Ars Technica had reported.

I’d call it a “toe in the water’ approach, as it was limited to
the Seattle construction zones, was temporary, and official
advocacy of the zipper merge was mostly by Twitter, he said. There
were no signs posted depicting the maneuver.

Phelps said the practice worked with varying degrees of success
during the multiple freeway lane closures in King County. “One of
the big hurdles is it’s a cultural thing,” he said, “getting people
to see that, ‘Hey he’s not being a jerk by using an open
lane.'”

Claudia didn’t express an opinion about the wisdom of installing
signs on Highway 3 calling for use of the zipper movement at 304 to
keep traffic flowing better than it does now. I’ll do what I can to
make sure the stakeholder committee studying the congestion problem
there knows of the idea.

The in basket: Ben Pearson e-mailed to say, “I know that left
turns on red are legal onto a one-way road like an on-ramp but can
they be used at that odd intersection of Highway 303 and Highway 3
where you are crossing over the traffic lane?”
The out basket: Ben is in the minority, as most drivers don’t know
that that is legal. I write about it a lot, but it hadn’t occurred
to me until Ben asked that it technically would apply to left turns
from eastbound Highway 303 to northbound Highway 3 in
Silverdale.
It would be wildly unwise to try it there. To do it legally one
must make a complete stop at the red light before proceeding and be
sure no traffic with a green light would conflict with the turn. It
can be done only onto a one-way street.
That Silverdale intersection is so long, with a hump in the middle,
that it would be difficult if not impossible to see conflicting
traffic that would make the turn illegal – and would risk a fender
bender or worse.
“It would be a crazy thing to try and if there isn’t a sign already
prohibiting it, there should be,” I told Ben, and asked State
Trooper Russ Winger, my State Patrol contact what he thought.
“I would agree,” he said. “That would not be a simple left turn
from a stop line to the ramp. You must travel several hundred feet
prior to even making the left turn.
“The timing of the lights, distance and design of the roadway make
that type of turn, at a minimum, unsafe. The intersection can be
confusing already for some drivers not familiar with it and that
type of action would not be safe at all in that location.”
But I wondered what such a sign would say. “No left turn on red”
would mystify the great majority of drivers who don’t know a left
turn on red is EVER legal.
Claudia Bingham Baker of the Olympic Region of state highways said,
“We agree with you that drivers would have no idea what such a sign
would mean, and we would not install it.”
It’s a moot point in most cases, anyway. Even where a left turn on
red would be safe as well as legal, the odds of the first driver in
line knowing of the odd law and daring to take advantage of it are
so low it’s rarely seen.

The in basket: Charles Ely says he thinks fledgling cormorants
who are hatched under the Warren Avenue Bridge in Bremerton are
crash landing on the roadway above while learning to fly and are
unable to get off the bridge deck since the recent alteration that
walled off the driving surface from the edge of the bridge. It
leads to “squashed cormorants,” he said, and he wonders if creating
a break in the barrier would be helpful.

Also, he said, “since they are protected, shouldn’t their deaths
be at least tracked?”

The out basket: Claudia Bingham Baker of the Olympic Region
public affairs office says, “We are aware of the large population
of pelagic cormorants that consider the Warren Avenue Bridge their
home. At various times (i.e. when we painted the bridge a few years
ago), our biologists have monitored the behavior of the birds.

“They found that the cormorants nesting on the underside of the
bridge flew under, not over, the bridge. The behavior your reader
is describing is a bit out of character for the birds, and (for
now), we don’t believe the pedestrian barrier has an effect on
their behavior because it did not change the barrier’s basic
configuration.

“Pelagic cormorants are migratory birds and are protected, but
they are not endangered. These particular cormorants don’t
even migrate – they stay put at the bridge.

“As regards tracking the birds,” she added, “we unfortunately we
don’t have the resources to do that. Your reader’s observation has,
however, raised our awareness and our biologists and bridge
maintenance people will look into the issue more closely.”

The in basket: Ken Richards e-mailed to ask, “Whatever happened
to the traffic light that was going to be installed this summer at
the corner of Hoover Avenue and Lund Avenue. by East Port Orchard
Elementary School?

“I believe it was suppose to be safer for bus traffic as they
returned to their barn and the children (pedestrians) walking on
the side of the road and crossing. Or did the roads
department/county council decide that people are replaceable and
the buses were getting old anyway?”

The out basket: I hadn’t heard of such a plan and the county
says there isn’t one. Ken may be thinking of plans for a new
traffic signal at Harris Road and Lund, a short distance east of
Hoover’s intersection. Or maybe not. Harris doesn’t provide much of
an access to and from the school bus compound.

“There was no traffic signal planned for Hoover and Lund,” says
Jeff Shea, county traffic engineer. “It does not meet the warrants
for a signal. The Lund and Harris intersection remains on the TIP
and is warranted by the increase in traffic at that
intersection.”

But even that one isn’t proposed for this year. It’s on the
county’s six-year road plan (called the TIP) for 2018 at a cost of
$715,000.

The in basket: I often hear from readers who find the
array of traffic signals on eastbound 11th Street at Warren Avenue
in Bremerton confusing. There are four signal heads for three
lanes, and the right-most two control only the outside lane, but
give some drivers the impression going straight in the centermost
eastbound lane is permissible.

It’s not, both inner lanes are for left turns only.

So I was surprised the other day when I spotted two signs beside
the street as I approached the intersection. They said only traffic
in the right lane is allowed to go straight.

I asked Gunnar Fridriksson, Bremerton’s managing street
engineer, if they had recently been added because of comments about
confusion at the intersection, or had they been there since the
intersection was revised a year ago.

The out basket: Another surprise. They’d been there a lot longer
than that. Gunnar said, “Probably put in place 20-plus years ago
when the lanes were originally configured (with) the two lanes
being left turning. Been there all this time.”

He’s remarked before that the recent revision didn’t change the
number of signal heads or what lanes they control. For some reason,
confusion among drivers increased when the heads no longer hung
from wires, but are installed on metal poles.

“The problem with signs,” he said, “if you are not looking for
them – they tend not to be noticed. (That’s) why I am not a
proponent for adding to the clutter.”

He then sent along a public service video intended to raise
consciousness about driver’s watching out for bicycles, but also
illustrating that things in plain sight can go unnoticed if you’re
watching for something else.

Perhaps you’ve seen it. It involves a bunch of people tossing
basketballs around, and you are challenged to count the number of
passes the ones dressed in white make. A man in a bear suit walks
through the milling players, moon-walking part of the way, and I’m
sure goes unnoticed – the first time – by the vast majority of
those who see it and are occupied counting passes. I didn’t see
him, even though I’d seen the video before.

Google ‘moonwalking bear” if you want to test your awareness.
Even forewarned, you may be surprised.

The in basket: Bill Metcalf, who I know
from the Winter Club dance organization, sent me the following on
Sept. 1, in his inimitably whimsical style.

“SheWhoMustBeObeyed and I were returning
home yesterday afternoon after ballroom dancing in Port Orchard,”
he wrote. “When we got to everybody’s favourite section of
Gorst – under the cliffs – SOME of the traffic ground to a crawl –
the rest didn’t, and it got ugly, quickly.

“Why? Right in the middle of the
worst part of Highway 3’s northbound side, where the curve
prohibits seeing very far ahead, a law enforcement vehicle had
stopped a car on the too-narrow right shoulder and, I imagine, the
(officer) was writing out a ticket! I was too busy trying to
dodge the inattentive/rubbernecking drivers to do more than avoid
hitting or getting hit.

“May I respectfully request if a (law
enforcement officer) needs to cite some driver for some infraction
or other, he/she take a couple of minutes to follow the perpetrator
to a SAFER location before lighting up the lights and pulling
over?

“I suspect that half of the inattentive
drivers were quickly attempting to move over a lane – in
bumper-to-bumper moving traffic – so as to follow the recent
mandate to do so, forgetting that they could merely slow down as
they drove past,” Bill said.

The out basket: Not knowing for what
department the officer in question works, nor whether it was a
citation in progress rather than a stalled car, I asked the
state patrol and Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office if their officers
have special instructions for places like the four-lane between
Gorst and Bremerton. The state forbids parking along there because
there’s so little room for error.

“Our officers do not have any special
instructions as to where to or not, stop a violator along that
particular section of SR-3,” State Patrol spokesman Trooper Russ
Winger replied.

“Our troopers are trained to evaluate
each traffic stop location based on several factors. These include,
but are not limited to, time of day, type of violation, current
traffic situation, driving behavior of the violator etc.

“Our troopers do think about and attempt
to stop violators in ‘safe’ locations (Stopping vehicles along
roadways, especially high speed roads, is inherently
dangerous).

“Of course, this is not always
possible depending on the particular circumstance. We often times
do ‘trail’ the violator to a more safe location if the situation
warrants doing so.

“There are situations where the officer
decides that getting the vehicle stopped ASAP is the best
situation, such as reckless and erratic driven vehicles and
possible DUI violators. As you pointed out, the officer could have
been assisting a disabled vehicle or even investigating a
collision.

“From experience I can tell you that
that section of SR-3 between SR-304 and Gorst, both north- and
southbound, is NOT the safest place to stop a vehicle or assist a
broken down vehicle or investigate a collision. But our troopers
will do what they need to in order to keep the roadways safe and
flowing as smooth as possible.

“As always, we recommend motorists
follow the law and at least slow down as they approach police
vehicles stopped on the shoulder with emergency lights
activated.”

Deputy Scott Wilson, Russ’ counterpart
in the sheriff’s office, called Russ’ response “spot-on,” saying
there’s nothing he could add except that he checked with 911 and
his department’s records and found no record of a county deputy
having made a stop for a traffic offense or motorist assist on that
stretch that Sunday.

The in basket: Erik
Bjarnson writes, “I take the Kingston-Edmonds ferry about half
a dozen times per month. When returning from Edmonds I get stopped
at a red light at Washington Boulevard NE (the first light coming
off the ferry) about 80 percent of the time. I don’t mind stopping
at red lights when there is a reason for the light to be red, but
it I have never stopped at that light and seen any cross traffic,
vehicular or pedestrian.

Are you aware of any reason this light
goes red to stop ferry traffic? Is it timed to give breaks in ferry
traffic? Is it timed to improve flow with other lights through
Kingston?
The out basket: Eric’s first guess is correct. Ken Burt of the
state’s Olympic Region signal shop says the idea is to give traffic
elsewhere in Kingston the opportunity to move during ferry
off-loads.

“The condition that is described by Mr.
Blair was put in prior to October 1994,” Ken said. “The side street
was recalled to allow gaps in traffic downstream from the
Washington Boulevard intersection.” (Recalled is the term signal
techs use to describe having the signal change.) The gaps in
traffic would allow cross street movements in downtown
Kingston.

“We have made minor adjustments to the
signal operation at Washington Boulevard.” he said, “that could
allow less frequent stops to the ferry offloading vehicles.
We will need to monitor the effects in Kingston from this
revision. If the revision does not negatively impact Kingston
then we will leave it in place.”

The in basket: Ken Hovater writes,”A couple of years ago the
county installed several feet of heavy duty guardrail on Long Lake
Road. At the time I believe the reasoning was to bring the road
into compliance with a highway construction standard.

“I am wondering when and if the state is going to do the same
work on Highway 160 (Sedgwick Road). There are some very deep
valleys in spots along that road. A crash into one could prove
fatal.”

The out basket: The county project on Long Lake Road came out of
a safety grant received for that purpose.

Sedgwick
is a state highway and Olympic Region spokesperson Claudia Bingham
Baker says, “Guardrail is usually installed when we have an
active project in an area. At present, we have no projects
planned on SR 160, so no plans to add guardrail along the
highway.

“Our maintenance crews replace and
repair damaged guardrail, of course, where it already exists,” she
said. State crews here just did that, replacing the guardrail
around the Highway 16 overpass in front of Peninsula Subaru in
Gorst. It had been mangled for the second time in a couple of years
and was replaced Sept. 4.

Claudia continues, “We have many areas
along our state highways that have dips along the roadway.
Guardrail itself can become a hazardous object motorists can hit,
so it’s installed only in areas that meet certain criteria. Even
then, we do not have the funds to install guardrail in all the
areas that could benefit from it.”